1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a point-service system for realizing a point-service as a sales promotion service for transaction in an online shopping mall established in a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the most popular customer lock-in systems and sales promotion systems in shopping malls is a stamp service system. A stamp service is provided by issuing a coupon corresponding to a sales amount and presenting a customer with an awarding gift, etc. when the number of coupons reaches a predetermined value.
Another popular system is to issue a magnetic card to a customer without a paper coupon, and update the service points of the customer recorded on the magnetic card each time the customer purchases goods or is presented with a discount or an awarding gift.
In this system, the magnetic card not only records the number of service points but also functions as an ID card (a unique number assigned to a customer). Regardless of using a coupon or a card, the system is operated with the conditions for issuing a coupon or any other points issue condition (hereinafter referred to as a points issue or points award ratio corresponding to the sales amount), and the conditions for redeeming points (hereinafter referred to as a points redeeming ratio) defined as common to all shops in a shopping mall. The redemption of the points means to redeem the points for discount, refund or an awarding gift. The above described systems are adopted by a number of shopping malls such as local shopping malls near stations, the Ginza Shopping Mall, etc.
Recently, customers buy goods not only in shops but also through network services using telephones, personal computers, etc. Furthermore, goods can be displayed through a network, for example, on a customer terminal connected to, for example, the Internet, so that a customer can do shopping through the terminal. When goods in a plurality of shops are displayed on the screen, the shopping mall formed of such shops is referred to as an online shopping mall. In such online shopping malls, no points services have been provided for a purchase in a shop.
In the stamp service in which the above described coupon, etc. is used, the customer has a lot of trouble in applying coupons to a brochure, storing a number of stamps, etc. The shops also have the problem that they have to prepare a number of coupons and pay for the coupons, and have a lot of trouble in following the necessary procedure for issuing the coupons and in counting the number of coupons corresponding to the sales amount for each customer, each time he or she buys goods.
To solve those problems, a point-service system has been developed using a point-of-sale terminal. In this system, service points are accumulated by a host system through the POS terminal each time a customer pays for goods. For example, the number of service points recorded on the magnetic card shown by the customer is updated.
However, in the point-service system using such a magnetic card, the customer has the problem that he or she has to necessarily show the magnetic card when he or she buy goods. Furthermore, the counting adjustment between a points issuing shop and a points redeeming shop is performed in a nighttime batch process through the host center, even if the accumulation result of the service points is recorded on the magnetic card. Therefore, the points record is not practically updated before the day after the shopping. Accordingly, it is inconvenient when exchanging the points for an awarding gift, and it takes a long time to adjust the records between a points issuing or award shop and a points redeeming shop.